THE CHALLENGE.....

We had the pleasure of spending the past weekend with our son, Neil and Lisa, his wife, and our delightful great grandchild, Lexie. It was one of those memorable times for many reasons....

I always love to spend time with our kids. And each one has his own special identity - that personality that makes him so special - and the family that each one heads.

Lexie is Neil and Lisa's first grandchild. Oh, yes, I know you didn't think of me as the mother of a grandfather - but in truth, I'm the mother of three grandfathers!

We did so many fun things. Lexie, seven years old, read to us in such a mature and dramatic way. She had gotten fifteen books out of the library for the weekend! And she read several of them to us with all the emphasis, gestures and faces that made them come alive.

And speaking of alive - we went to the Gaslight Theatre and saw "Frankenstein Lives". We laughed so hard that if it's true that laughter stretches your life, I'm good for at least another ten years. It was such fun and so nostalgic.

The fellowship was so very precious. Neil had TIVO'd the Eric Hite funeral. He was the policeman that was killed in the line of duty and was a member of Saguaro Canyon Church. Neil, as his pastor, gave the message and it was beautiful. When he first came on camera I wasn't sure it was him! He was so handsome; gray hair, a suit and tie, and glasses. He looked like a genuine pastor. There were over 4,000 people in attendance and he told us how Eric had always wanted to bring his fellow officers to the Lord and to church. And in God's own special way they all were here - at one time - hearing the Gospel at the cost of Eric's life. Several of these men were truly touched and attended a Bible Study at the church for several weeks.

His message was passionate, loving and kind. The results of that message has affected all of Tucson since it was televised on several channels. He became the best known pastor in Tucson in the matter of just a few minutes. Were we proud? Guess!

But that was just the beginning. On Sunday morning he preached on Revelations 1:9-20. He had prepared a sermon that he discarded after realizing what a WOW moment this must have been for John. So he wrote a new one - and it was right on spot. He reminded us that John was probably feeling that his life's purpose was over and then he saw Jesus after probably at least 50 years - and Jesus gave him a new task.

"Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this."

He reminded us all that our tasks for the Lord are not over. We each have a gift - or a memory - or a challenge to fulfill. What is mine?

I learned a lot from Lisa who was such a relaxed and loving hostess. Her relationship with Lexie is fruitful and full of 'teaching' moments. How lucky Lexie is to have her grandparents love.

On the way home we were filled with such lovely things to talk about. And again, I share the question with you...... What is your challenge from God? What would He want us to be - or do?

Thanks Neil and Lisa for such a lovely memory. We will treasure it.....

Party time and God's precious Gifts.....

Wow! It's been 24 days since my last blog! What have I been doing?

I can honestly say that this has been a very special Month for me because of all the celebrations and parties that I've been involved in. We just barely got through Bob's 78th birthday on August 29th, when I shared my 35th birthday lunch with my dear friend of 36 years, Neysa. More about that later.

Then I shared a wonderful birthday lunch with my dear friend, Mary (whose birthday was two days earlier) and our breakfast-lunch group on the Monday in between. And then, we had a real fancy feast at Red Lobster on the following Friday, courtesy my dear sister and neice. This, too, was shared with our same group of our wonderful friends.

My birthday was blessed with calls from all of my sons starting early in the morning and ending with a beautiful choir rendition of 'Happy Birthday to You' from Wes and Kim's family. What a special treat!

I also had cards and calls from Grandchildren and friends galore! They are all so special to me.

My wonderful husband gave me a brand new desk for my birthday! For those of you who know him, that means that he re-contacted it with a lovely soft color that is very restful to the eyes. He also did my computer table and now I feel quite neat and tidy.

My honey turned 78 this year - and I follow him by one year. Imagine my surprise when I got a loveletter from him celebrating MY 78th burthday!
I wouldn't let him change it - and told him I'd save it and read it again next year.

Now, to get back to Neysa! We started our friendship in 1972 thanks to our Pastor, Vincent Strigas. Neysa had come to our church and it was always Vincent's pleasure to pair people up, so he called me and sicked me on her. My pupose was to disciple her in her new-found Christian faith. She, like I, had always attended church but only recently was led to Christ.

My joy has always been to disciple those that the Lord gives me to the point where they take the lead in the relationship and start to disciple me. And this happened early with Neysa. She was so spiritually hungry that she'd study voraciously and memorize and study some more. She is and was a delight to mentor, and in the process became my best friend.

And that's what this blog is all about. One of the reasons our friendship has been so rewarding is because Christ has always been at the center of it. We have gone for months without actual contact because of our large family responsibilities and busy schedules, but as soon as we are together again, we pick up right where we left off.

We treasure our times together and have many wonderful memories of trips we took - conventions that we attended together - friends we have shared - trials we've shared - and our relationship to each other's kids. What a blessing! She has been with me through the hard times and the fun times. Always faithful and always there.

Many of you are young now and just starting out in your adult friendships. Might I suggest that you make it a point, early on, to include your wonderful Savior as part of each one. Pray together. Confess yours sins to each other. And encourage each other. And then, perhaps, you'll be lucky enough to say 36 years later - that you've tasted a little bit of heaven right here.

OUR TROOPS (serving at home)

This is a picture of
Bob holding Art

It was November 10th, 1951. My wonderful husband-to-be called me at my American Airline office (I worked in Lost and Found at the time) and invited me out to a wonderful night at the home that we would one day inhabit. We had bought this house with a fifty cent down payment on July 28th of that year. Why do I remember the date? Mainly because that was the day we were officially engaged after my dear Bob had asked my Dad four times for my hand in marriage and been denied. The purchase of the house finally convinced him that we were serious about getting married. He approved with the caveat that we not be married before March of 1952.

But - November 10th changed all that. I was excited about this extra night at the house because we were only allowed to date three times a week, but Bob had cleared it with my folks, so here we were. As Bob drove, I peeked in the backseat and could see his blender pitcher sticking out of a bag. On inspection - I saw that it was a pitcher of dacquaries!! Bob's dad made them just for the occasion.

After dinner, we sat down on our secondhand couch and toasted ourselves on our wonderful happiness. Then the bomb fell!

Bob looked very serious - as he revealed that he had received his draft notice, and that he was due to leave on January 8th. My immediate reaction was - "well, then we'll just have to get married before you go."

I won't bother with the details but the fact is that we were married eleven days later. I'm sure that everyone was counting the months to determine if we "had" to get married, but the truth is, that we were both so well brought up that we'd never do anything 'like that' out of respect for our families and our God. Neil wasn't born for two years after that. We were fortunate in that after we were married, we were given a year's delay so that he really didn't leave until 1953.

Once Bob was stationed in Alaska, we had been apart for fourteen months. And that's what this blog is all about. Having had first-hand experience as an Army wife - I need to tell you that when you are praying for our troops all over the world - please don't forget the families they leave behind. I went back to work when Neil was only six weeks old. It was a very hard time in my life.

I remember missing out on a choir party because I oveheard one of the sopranos saying that they wouldn't invite me because I would be 'all alone'. They missed the fact that that was the very reason I should have been invited. I hope I'm not sounding like a whiner because I really had such a wonderful core of friends and family to soften the blow.

But when I read about the number of troops that are away from their families I think of all the things that their families have to deal with. Money - for one. Our troops don't make a whole lot of bucks even now.
It often means that the wife has to go to work and sometimes even bare their fist child alone. I had Neil in a charity ward and although I really am grateful for the experience - it can be humbling.

Then, there are the holidays. This is perhaps one of the most challenging times to get through. I could go on and on - but the purpose of this blog is not to biograph our lives, but just to remind you to pray and 'do for' these families, as well.

GROWING RICHER

For most people - a title like this would immediately inspire thoughts of great new ways to gain material wealth. But for my purposes, growing richer really means growing older.

The older I get, the more I realize my wealth. For instance, I have a pretty secure roof over my head....I have a storehouse of food, frozen and otherwise... and I have a closet bulging with apparel. If you check out Matthew 6:25-34 - then you know what I'm saying. And having all this wealth - I need not ever worry!

But what happens if I lose it? What if I am overcome by a flood (Gustav), War (Russia), famine (most of the third world)? Will I still consider myself wealthy?

I can honestly say yes! Because at my age, I have enjoyed all of these privileges and I thank God for that - but my greatest privilege is to be a child of God. He has always been at my right hand (Psa. 16:8) and has brought me through many storms and set my feet on higher ground.

And so, with great joy, I praise our Triune God and surrender gladly to His challenges and chastenings. May this be your experience as well.

OUR HERO RETURNS

Hurrah! He's home! Yes, after almost eight years serving our country in the Army, Staff Sargent Jason Watson is back home where he belongs. Susie and Glenn had a wonderful coming home party for him at B.J.'s Brewery on Sunday evening and we all gave a sigh of relief.

I figured out afterwards that for the last eleven years we have had at least one grandson overseas serving their country. We couldn't be prouder of them. Most gratefully, they all came home bruised but not broken. Praise God for his mercy.

Jason moved right into the home he has been financing with three friends for the last six months. They'll have a great time sharing stories - and getting on with their lives.

Jason is very shy about talking about his medals, but we understand he has quite a few that he earned at some cost. Again, thank God that he's home.

Love to all......

Our Children having children having children......

We are now a full-fledged family of four generations! It happened much quicker than I thought it would.

The first generation is us, Bob and Jaye.
Then Neil was born and we became mom and dad to three more sons.
Wes brought Andrea into the world and we became Gramma and Granpa to ten grandchildren plus 2 more by his second marriage.
And now we are GG (great gramma) and GGpa (great granpa) to eleven great grandchildren starting with David and going all the way down to Topher.

I must caution you to the facts! The kids came two years apart. The grandkids came one year apart - but the GGkids come only months apart.
As a result - I have discovered a flaw in my character! I'm just not as good at recalling all of the birthdays of all of the progeny as quickly as I used to.

You guessed it! Today is Cooper's first birthday. If I hadn't gone to Watsonsplace.com and saw his darling pictures - it might have slipped right by. For some reason - it was not in my day-timer for this year and I am utterly ashamed of myself. Please forgive me Coop - and the card will be in the mail tomorrow.

What's it like to be a great grandmother? It's just amazing. We are so lucky to have our GGs so close to us. We get to see them more often than many of our friends do and we treasure that.

At this point in time, we have the joy of seeing them grow through the stages that are so adorable - and watch their parents grow in 'wisdom and knowledge' that surpasses description. If you read our granddaughter, Jihae's blog (baby havin babies) she gives a day by day account of the joys of Lilly and Topher. She has a real gift for writing transparently and makes one feel the ups and downs of motherhood.

I often say that I have no problem with being a great grandmother! But the realization that I am the mother of three grandfathers is overwhelming.

I wouldn't trade this time in our lives for anything. We are no longer sitting in the prime section of the auditorium - the parents occupy that place now. But we're content, no thrilled, to have been set back a section or two so that we can see the whole panorama of the family functioning in their various roles, and to cheer them on.

God has so richly blessed us - and we give all the glory to Him for his wonderful generosity. Our quiver is filled.

I'm not really an outdoorsy type of person but I do remember when I was!
We lived in a suburb of New York City when I was about eight years old. After school, and especially in the summers, we rarely saw the inside of our house. My mom's favorite greeting was "change your clothes and get outside in the fresh air". We never disagreed because 'outdoors' was where life was really taking place.

We lived within walking distance of a huge 'lot'. This lot was fairyland - outer space - the wild west - and in the winter - igloo heaven. We always had games to play and they all began with "let's pretend......". And we had imaginations - let me tell you. Sometimes the 'we' was my sister, Ronnie and me but more often it was my friends, Bunny and Madeline.

We were instantly transposed into ballerinas, detectives, pioneers, movie stars or whatever. We just had to say "Let's pretend....." And we took off from there.

In the winter, our call home was the streetlights turning on. We knew when that happened that dinner was probably almost on the table so our games ended abruptly and we ran home knowing that we would get the strap on our legs if we kept Mom waiting. In the summer - we would try to have at least one watch between us. Usually it was Bunny's mom's because we couldn't afford such a luxury, and she was a very loving mom.

On Art Mohler's program today he mentioned a survey that said young kids today spend the major part of their day in front of some technological gadget. They either text each other on their cell phones - watch tv - play on their computers - or whine about having nothing to do. How sad!!!

One of our big games was to define the characters sent to us through the clouds. We'd lay on our backs in the grass and identify horses, dogs, soldiers, ice cream cones and anything else that appeared feasible to us. So much time to just think....dream....create...compose. But never time to be bored.

I pray that my great grandkids are spared the distactions of technology until they have had time to develop their own skills of creating, imagining, and dreaming. May they hear the music of the insects as they go from flower to flower.....and the whooshing of the wind through the trees - and the smell of good fresh dirt just ready for planting... and the voices of other kids nearby playing ball of some kind. Life is to short to be enslaved by technology. Save that for the adult years - they last a long time......
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